Saturday, December 12, 2015

Craftmas Part Two: Floor and Door

Next up on the holiday decor list were a couple easy projects - one practically made itself. I found this fairly large chunk of white fleece in the remnant bin at Joann for $4 and thought it would make the perfect "snowy" tree skirt. It was 40x60 inches, or 1x1.5 meters if you like.

I simply folded it in half one way, then in half the other way so that the corner of the folds was the center of the fabric. I held the end of my measuring tape at that corner and rotated it, marking out with pins the largest arc I could - about 20in/0.5m radius. Once that was cut, I unfolded one of the folds, so I had a doubled-up half-circle. I cut straight up the middle of one layer, stopping at the fold. Then I snipped out a little square from the edge to give room for the base of my Christmas tree.

I wrapped my tree in its new skirt, overlapping the edges in the back, and I tucked it under a bit all around to give a softer appearance, like snow drifts. Sure, it's not terribly convincing, but for $4 and 5 minutes? Bargain!

After that it was time to tackle the front door. I'm not one for traditional wreaths, so I did some searching around on Pinterest for more modern alternatives and found some made of coffee filters and feathers and felt flowers and whatnot. So I thought, hey, maybe I could knit something fluffy and fun. After a brief stash dive, I came up for air with this bizarre stuff in my hand. It's essentially a wide ribbon with little holes every couple inches along one edge. It was a free gift with purchase at one of the shops in last year's DFW Yarn Crawl, and I honestly didn't think I would ever use this stuff. At the time, the only thing I could think to make with it was super girly, ruffle-butt undies, and why, I ask you, why would I do that? I wouldn't. That's the answer. I just wouldn't. But wait a minute! It would make a perfect ruffly winter wreath! So I quickly knitted up a simple scarf-y thing. I cast on 5 stitches and worked in stockinette stitch - meaning all the ruffles would be on the purl side - until I ran out of yarn. It ended up about 4ft/1.2m long.

I popped over to Michaels after that and picked up a 12in/30cm wreath form and an acrylic snowflake ornament for about $5 total.

I used some plain white yarn to whip stitch my scarf-y thing to the front of the wreath form and to attach the snowflake to the top edge so it dangles in the center.

I used a bit of fishing line to hang it on the nail in our front door, but you could also use one of those over-the-door wreath hangers if you prefer.

Now I just need to get/make some ornaments for the tree and wait for Santa to arrive!